She had let so many people down recently—Liv, Alex, her father and herself. Apparently Diego was the only one who didn’t care about the consequences. She turned her head and saw him standing there, watching her father go, rage mirrored in his golden gaze.
Diego couldn’t believe his own eyes. His ears rang with those softly delivered yet harsh words. It was nothing a father should ever say to his child, and Diego himself had had more than his share of nasty words from his own father.
His temper frayed to the edge. Every inch of him wanted to turn around, find Jeremiah Stanton and pound his fists into the older man.
In another lifetime he wouldn’t have given it another thought. He would have worked through his fury the only way he knew how. But he was not that man anymore. He had promised his mother that he would remove the violence that had been part of his life for so long as a member of a street gang.
Even though keeping his promise was the hardest thing at moments like this.
Kim looked frazzled. Her dress had more color than her face. He wrapped a hand around her shoulders and the shocking thing was that she let him. He felt her shiver and a curse fell from his lips. “Are you okay?”
Her brown eyes drank him in silently. The very absence of hurt in them jarred through him. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“You were apologizing to him while he uttered the foulest words and yet you flay me for lesser sins?”
He felt her smile against his arm. Holding her like this was pure torture but he couldn’t let go.
“That’s just the way my father is.”
He reared back, frowning. “He laid into you in the middle of a crowd. For what? Because you slept with me? Because you’re pregnant? Because you let your control slip for one night? You’re twenty-five, you’re the CEO of your own company.” He frowned as another thought came bursting in. “Are you saying he’s always been like this?”
“Yes, but it was usually aimed at my mother and then Liv.”
His breath left him in a sharp hiss. “But not you? Ever?”
“I never gave him the chance—never let him find fault with me. I did everything he asked me to and I excelled at it.”
“So you’re not upset?” he said, disbelief ringing through him.
“I’m upset that I gave him any reason. But you already know that I regret my actions four weeks ago.”
“You’re defending him?”
“My father is responsible for all the success I have achieved. If he hadn’t continually pushed me, I would have—I would be—nothing. This is his way of warning me to not let it all go down the drain.”
“You make one mistake—if it can be called that—and he tears you apart? Don’t you see—?”
“You’re reading too much into this, Diego.”
Her mouth was a study in resignation that mocked his anger.
“I’ve always known that his approval comes with conditions.”
“I saw fear in Olivia’s eyes. Are you saying he didn’t put it there?”
She glanced past him, her gaze riddled with anxiety. “Yes, he did,” she said. “Do you know where she is?”
Fisting his hands, Diego reined in another curse. She wasn’t upset for herself but for her twin. “Alexander’s with her.”
“I always tried my best to protect Liv,” she said, with a hint of pleading in her tone, as if she needed to explain herself. “The only way to do that was to play peacekeeper by not giving him any more reason to lose it.”
Why was it her job to protect Olivia? He kept those words to himself through sheer will. “So of course you had to become everything perfect?”
“Why do you say that like it’s a—” she glared at him “—curse? How is he any different from you?”
“Your father is a bully of the worst sort,” he said through gritted teeth. “I fought in street-gangs, yes, but I used my fists for survival. If that’s what you think about me—”
“No. I didn’t mean that you’re a bully.” She looked at him, her expression pleading. “I meant he’s no different from anyone else in his expectations of me. He’s just upfront about it. My accomplishments, my capabilities, are the things that draw people to me. Nothing else...” She swallowed, as if she found it hard to speak the words. “It’s why you married me six years ago, it’s why Alex picked me for his wife and it’s what my father’s approval of me is based on.”
There it was again—that accusation. As though he hadn’t...
She swayed and he caught her, questions tumbling through his head.